Saying Yes to Emmanuel

The Third Week of Advent, the days grow shorter and darker, but yet we are filled with joy and hope, for we know the promise of Emmanuel.

This week at the Friary we are leading a 3 day Advent Mission. I'm part of the planning and presenting team. It really is a blessing to be a part of something that I hope to be able do as a Franciscan.

As we journey closer to Christmas my blog this week is my reflection for the Mission. Our theme is Saying Yes to Emmanuel. My topic within the theme is Mary's 'Yes'! May Mary remind us that we all have our part to do.

 

Yes...For Emmanuel to Come Among Us

She said ‘Yes!’ I have always been fascinated that Mary said ‘yes!’ A young girl, about thirteen or fourteen, has angel appear and she says ‘yes!’

I look at my own life when I was thirteen or fourteen, and I know that my ‘yes’ would not have come so quickly. Even though I feel I had a deep connection with God at that time or at least I knew my faith life was growing, I would have not so easily said yes, even to an angel.

My parents would testify to this. Many a time it would be ‘Michael can you do the dishes?’ Yup I will. ‘Michael can you please make sure your brothers get their homework done?’ Yup I will. ‘Michael can you please go out to the garden and pick the peas?’ Yup I will.

You see the difference between Mary’s yes and my yes, is that she followed through on it quite quickly, where as my yes was instant, but often meant another reminder or two or delayed reaction or a ‘yes, but…’ or a threat needed to be made before I followed through on my promise.

But not Mary, in her ‘yes’, she embraced God’s promise to her people and to generations to come. She embraced bearing a child, when she herself was still a child. She embraced having to endure ignorance from people she thought were her friends, to being very much alone at times, to challenges, to being scared, to times of pain, but she said ‘yes.’

May be she never thought of any of that and simply said ‘yes’ out of trust. Simply saying ‘yes’ out of ‘God is calling me, I must respond’. She was young and open and full of trust. She was open to God touching her heart. She was open to God’s plan even though she did not know all what that would mean. Yet she was willing to risk it all, to say ‘yes!’ A Yes that would include Christ being born, yes to accepting her mission, yes to raising and loving him, yes to hardship, yes to letting him go, yes to watching him die, yes to the glory of his resurrection.

She said ‘yes!’ She was open and she trusted. Maybe that is the secret of staying in tune with our God, to keep at heart the innocence, pure, hopeful and strong yes of a child.

In the major motion picture ‘The Nativity Story’ that was released a few years ago, there is a scene where Mary and Joseph are journeying to Bethlehem and they stop for the night on the side of the road. Mary asks Joseph about his dream. At first he hesitates to tell her, but then confirms the same message she had received, that the child within in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that he was not to be afraid. Mary then asks him ‘Are you afraid?’ He pauses for a moment and then says ‘yes, he is’. He then asks her the same question and she agrees with him. And then they wonder, when they will know that their child is more than a child or if they will be able to teach him anything. It is a very intimate moment in the movie. It shows how very human we all are and that God was willing and still is willing to step into that.

In the first letter of John there is a line that reads ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ Perfect love casts out fear. God’s love is perfect and Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah embraced that love and let it subside the fear that sat within them as they said ‘yes’ to God.

Do we?

Do we let God’s perfect love come in dwell within in us?

One of the many names for Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us! Do we let perfect love come and dwell within us or do we find excuses, or say yes but with these conditions or do we at this busy time of year fill our yes up with demands of the season (eggnog, with party after party, with cookies to be icing and with perfect gifts to be found)?

I’m by no means saying to cut these special items out of our Advent preparations but do we leave enough room to say ‘yes’ to Emmanuel?

Yes!

I will trust!

Yes as part of my everyday!

Yes to the adventure of life!

Yes to today, to tomorrow and beyond.

Yes to my gifts shared and more to share!

Yes

in reaching out to others,

in helping the less fortunate,

in defending life,

in giving and not counting the cost,

in loving, even when it’s hard.

Yes to simply being,

in gratitude

in generosity

in looking beyond myself

Yes to the gift of life,

to forgiveness

in remembering that God is present,

God’s perfect love is present, even when life seems bleak.

Do we say yes?

Yes to God’s kingdom that has no end?

Yes to the promise that nothing is impossible with God?

Mary said yes to all of this.

Mary stood at the center of God’s plan? Where do we stand?

Are our hearts ready to accept Emmanuel again this Christmas?

 

 

Help us say ‘yes’, O God

to your perfect love,

that you may work wonders through our lives,

that the world may know your Son, Emmanuel,

through our words and actions,

that we may proclaim you with greatness and joy until the end of time.

Amen.

 

 

 

PS.

Holly grows around here quite freely and easily.

These 2 photos are of the tree at our entrance